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Fort Worth event to offer new festival fare: Coffee
October 23, 2021 @ 5:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Free
By Valerie Fields Hill
News Editor
Texas Metro News
Organizers of a new outdoor festival in Fort Worth will offer attendees something simple and universal: A cup of coffee
The International Coffee Festival, which will be held in late October, will feature baristas, local coffee shop owners, growers and Texas A&M University researchers, who will showcase new grounds and Texas-themed coffee blends, said the Rev. Kyev Tatum, founder.
Festival goers also may sample cups of brew.
Tatum said the International Coffee Festival will offer visitors a comfortable means to engage in conversation around economic parity – one of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s primary civil rights focal points.
“Coffee stimulates conversation,” Tatum said. “They’re pushing for more Black (coffee growers) in this industry.”
He hopes visitors who meander around downtown Fort Worth will stop in and grab a cup of Joe – or a bag of the new Ballpark Coffee beans, he said. Proceeds from the sale of the new blend will go towards equity initiatives.
The Coffee festival also will showcase 12th Man Coffee, another new blend of beans offered by the Center for Coffee Research and Education. The center is a program of the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture at Texas A&M University.
The International Coffee Festival will be from 5 to 9 p.m., Oct. 23, in General Worth Square, 900 Main St., between 8th and 9th streets, in Fort Worth. The event is free and open to the public.
For more information on the festival, contact Tatum at (817) 966-7625 or at kptatum1@gmail.com
The coffee festival is sponsored by MLK Day on Main Street, a springtime outdoor event that brings together people from varying backgrounds to encourage learning about the Civil Rights Movement, Fort Worth’s historical place in that movement and about modern social justice causes.
On Oct. 22, 1959, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “A Great Time to Be Alive” speech at the Majestic Theater on Main Street in Fort Worth. That evening, hundreds of people gathered to hear the message, which was delivered during a then fledgling Civil Rights Movement.
